[Light of Altair]

Gry.o2.pl Interviews Light of Altair Developers - Simon and Thomas de Rivaz
http://gry.o2.pl/publicystyka_special/?co=pokaz&id=168
(English translation to the side!)

Other-Gaming.com's Reido Interviews Light of Altair Devs
http://reidos-blog.other-gaming.com/#post4

  IceNine, I agree. I've written a heap of 'engines' that can wow my friends but don't have a balloon's chance in a pin factory of getting turned into full games (Sadly the expansive RPGs I would love to write need 100's of man years for all the content).
  On the other hand, abstract or strategic settings can get away with less art content and make up the gap with interesting gameplay mechanics and storyline instead (while adding a few of the graphics effects over the top on the cheap (Copy/Paste from the DirectX demos in a couple of hours!))

Thanks adj, that was a lot clearer than I had been working with

I would suspect that 99% of indie games don't 'resonate in the media' so I'm not too glum, especially for a first game

There are 5-6 indie titles that I keep seeing everywhere, but the vast majority of indies are invisible save for the odd coverdisc appearance.

Excuse my Spanish but this site (FMGames.es) seems to think I am controversial in being so secretive about my game so close to launch.
I can only hope a fluent Spanish speaker can put me right!

Is it wrong to focus on Indie sites and ignore the mainstream mags and websites? Have people had experience of getting Previews/Reviews alongside mainstream games?

I know it is a common problem for Indie games to get coverage in mainstream gaming media so I've not put too much effort in that direction - but by their reaction it seems I've been doing much less PR than I should have been.

Cool looking caves, very natural effect.

I have always found procedurals much more fun to make than to play. Players tend to grok the 'ingredients' very quickly then the endless creation spreads the actual creative content thinner and thinner over more area.

The early Elder Scrolls used loads of procedurals for town and battle creation - but the appeal came from the hard work designing the art and enemies. Later games like Morrowind reserve procedurals for the contents of chests - but even then each item is carefully designed first.

I've made entire procedural continents complete with cities and villages - but then had more fun playing tiny hand crafted caves. I guess it comes down to how much content your game has on top of the map designs

It looks to me more like rough/scratched/brushed metal effect than lots of highlights. It makes a change from smooth chrome, and suits a battle robot.

I like all the little details behind the hulking armour plates.

2nd Law: The entropy of an isolated system which is not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium.

Cool name - fatalistic and sci-fi connotations.

The Modern Storyteller
9 Culture, 4 Feeling, 7 Story, 8 World, 6 Rules and 5 Tutor

In proud defiance that complex strategy games can't have good stories.
Fun quiz.

What kind of action is there going to be? Shooting/fighting/jumping/puzzles? I love the look of the sprites - hope the gameplay is as good :D

Lovely looking game, and some heavy duty marketing ideas too - love the memory sticks + tear off posters

I'm usually a big fan of this type of game, but the mousecursor/timer annoyed me. I prefer the timer to appear in corner of screen leaving my cursor ready to line up the next click.

Otherwise well polished and cutesy fun! Now I've installed Unity will be on the look out for more games

SaintXi



My partner suggested Saint as a good name in the footsteps of several great 'religious' themed studio names, and we added the Chinese character Xi to make a unique name - we currently use the Ascii "Xi" rather than the original Chinese to make an easier to type name.

[Elize]

  I've been painting Elize from Light of Altair. This image will be used late in the game when you refind Elize after her Generation ship lost contact - She becomes part of the Seeker faction and helps you fight back against her old bosses the UEO.
  I think the painted message heads add variety to an otherwise 3D heavy game.

Don't be fooled by the graphics, this game is brilliant. Excellent story and shooting levels - almost puzzle like in their tactics.

If you had a little more time, I would fix the walls so you can slide along them + collide neatly to get round corners (Only got stuck once in the thinnest tunnel).

[life+]

letsap - I like life+, it is original and ties in well with your character design (his shirt) so it is memorable. Only downside is that '+' is not always a valid in names+filenames. Interesting character art too - amazing what you can do with a few pixels 

Nice update - No problems this time.

The healing spell is a good idea. Controls are much easier, and the homing bullets make it that bit more exciting - especially with multiple turrets firing at you.

With stationary enemies I could just about play it one-player switching between mouse and keys (I am sure there is some trick with controls that would let you control wizard entirely with the mouse) I guess the gameplay feels a bit different with 2 actual players.
It was easy enough to take out a single turret by blocking and sniping, and I could take on 2 turrets by dodging around without golem. Beyond that it got too tricky and I ran and dodged my way to the end!

Perhaps you could add a puzzle element to the game too, so the levels are more obviously designed to need 2 player co-op to avoid hazards and navigate the level.

Golem could push bounders, bash doors, stand on pressure pads, while wizard defends him by fighting off the attacking monsters. Golem perhaps is not invincible but has a quicly recovering health (so he can die if completely overwhelmed for a few seconds). Other times golem needs to defend wizard in strategic positions as he runs between cover, to approach and kill an enemy.

I think there are plenty of games to get ideas for for the wizard bit, but unless the golem was a fast moving shield his role will be less interesting - so think of other things for him to do that are interesting.

Golem was much harder to control than Wizard. Screen directional movement is much easier than turning and forward style.
Tried blocking with golem - it worked... but I found it easier to win by running about with wiz and sniping from a distance. I was trying to play with a character on each hand rather than proper multiplayer so I am not the best judge.
Unfortunately had a crash when exiting the game (System locked with a black screen), so I'm not keen to try it again.

The screenshots made me think 'charming' and the music fitted that perfectly. I enjoyed the concept and replayed to improve my score. Although some levels are tricky (or bewildering) I like the variety of puzzles, skill challenges, and simple story ones too. I preferred the levels with clear graphical feedback when I won, they were more satisfying than a glimpse of a green '1' in the countdown. Look forward to seeing more of this one

Lynx - Our story tangles around several Generation Ships sent to Altair that lose contact and return later as independent factions while you flick between cooperation and rebellion with the dominant Earth leaders in your colony adventures.
  I've always loved Deuteros' storyline, rebuilding the Earth's failed space program only to run into the mysterious beings in the outer planets.